Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved fabric. I kept a collection of my
mother’s left over fabric scraps, as she was an avid sewer. I made mini
pillows and bedding for my dollhouse and tried my hand at sewing baby dolls and
Christmas ornaments. I never inherited my mother’s talent for sewing, but
have continued to be fascinated by fiber.

A few months ago I was
going through the craft aisles of our local Walmart, not looking for anything
in particular--just hoping to be surprised by something that I could take home
and incorporate in my art—and voila, I found it! The fabric section in Walmart
is a true find—especially for a mixed media artist like me, who only needs
the smallest swatches to play with. The lady in the craft department knows
me quite well—I’m the gal who buys up 1/16 of a yard swatches of about 10 different
fabrics at a time—she is a gem about it though, at least laughing on the
outside.

I have about five small bins of these fabric swatches in
my studio, from which I can find just the perfect pieces for making miniature
whimsical trees, houses, birdhouses, flowers, wings, and even backgrounds for
my ATC and 4x4 , sometimes 5x5 collages. They add wonderful texture, are
a nice contrast to the paper and paints I work with, and add a bit of whimsy to
the canvas—shall we say, some great eye candy—for pennies no less.

Here are a few samples of my work that use these fabric finds. So,
when’s your next trip to Walmart?

Susan Tuttle is a mixed media artist
who resides in Maine, USA You can visit her website Ilka’s Attic at or Artwords The Online Art Journal (a public site which features the work of participating artists), which she
is the founder and curator of .
Susan Tuttle
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